Richard Gough in The Scottish Sun on Sunday..
http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scot...-knows-it.html
JUST who is Neil Lennon trying to kid?
The Celtic manager has come out and said that my old club should lose their championships.
But he knows himself that you can NEVER take away the feeling of winning the SPL — or even walking up the steps of Hampden to lift a cup.
People seem to want to take yet another kick at the club and I agree with Ally McCoist that enough is enough.
Everything has been agreed to get Rangers their SFA membership but there is still talk of taking the titles away if an investigation goes against them.
It would be a symbolic move but what’s the point? What does it achieve? NOTHING.
When you win a title or lift a Scottish Cup it’s all about the memories and that’s something that can never be erased.
You can’t turn back the clock and tell people they didn’t win something even though they got their hands on the trophy.
You can get the Tipp-ex out and change the record books but what you can’t do is take away from the supporters the way they celebrated on those occasions.
And the players who won those titles won’t suddenly feel like losers because a bit of paper has been changed to say they haven’t won it after all.
For me those titles were won fair and square.
I saw someone compare it to drugs cheats in the Tour de France but that’s rubbish.
What Rangers are accused of is trying to dodge the taxman, not cheat the opposition on the park. It would be a different story if it was match fixing like we saw in Italy — but this was nothing to do with the team, it was accountants and lawyers.
Having a tax scheme in place didn’t make the players run any faster or shoot any straighter, they still had to go out and beat the opposition.
The titles issue seems to be the thing that held up Rangers’ SFA membership and I would expect Ally to continue fighting the SPL if they persist in wanting to take anything off the club. Ally wasn’t happy on Friday night and he has made his feelings known.
I completely agree with where he’s coming from.
It’s time the SPL stopped taking cheap shots and for everyone’s sake get back to focusing on football again.
Because of financial problems the club has been sent to Division Three, has lost a lot of the top players, has a transfer embargo coming up, has been fined and have been denied their prize money from the SPL last season.
Is that not enough?
The Rangers fans have been suffering and what did they do wrong? Nothing.
The supporters have turned up in big numbers every week, supporting the team at home and away — which also swells the coffers of the other clubs.
They have not been to blame for what’s happened at Ibrox but they are the ones seeing their club given a doing when its down.
And even after all the punishments handed down to Rangers the SPL still want to feed off the TV money they’re going to bring in.
Rangers are a massive club and will always attract huge interest.
The SPL know this and although they said they don’t want the club in their league they still want to live off the back of them. It’s hypocritical.
The level of interest will be shown at Brechin today where news crews from all over Europe will be present to see the club start this new chapter.
It’s going to be strange to see a club the size of Rangers playing at that level but that’s the way it is and that’s what most of the Gers fans wanted.
It’s time to get on with it and start playing football again. I’m sure that’s what Ally and the players are desperate for.
Turning up at Glebe Park today and putting that blue jersey on will be a huge release for everyone at the club and for 90 minutes at least they will be able to forget about everything that’s been going on.
The players will be determined to show the fans — and everyone else — that Rangers are ready to fight their way back.
It doesn’t matter what the company is called — Ally is the manager, the club is playing at Ibrox and the fans are the same. It’s still the same Rangers.
The supporters are wary, and rightly so.
I think the right thing for them to do is to back Ally and the players by going to the games — but pay at the gate.
But until the fans are sure about the direction the club is being taken in then they’re definitely right to hang fire on buying season tickets.